Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet and painter, born in London in 1828, the
son of a professor of Italian. Rossetti was a precocious, charismatic, but
ill-disciplined student. He studied at King's College School, Henry Sass's Drawing
Academy in Bloomsbury (starting in 1841), and finally at the Antique School of
the
Royal Academy, from 1845 to 1848, which he left for a brief period of study under
Ford Madox Brown. Barely five months later, Rossetti left Brown and established
himself in the studio of William Holman Hunt, also a Royal Academy student. Writing
absorbed much of Rossetti's time, including translations of Dante, whose work
was a
lifelong inspiration.

With Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, Rossetti formed the Pre-Raphaelite
Brotherhood in September 1848. The group derived its name from a desire to revert
to
a tradition of simplicity and realism that was found in early Italian art; they
aimed to achieve a high degree of fidelity in reproducing nature and detail.
Rossetti devised the Brotherhood's magazine, The
Germ, chiefly devoted to the nature of art, which lasted only four issues.
The original Brotherhood also ceased to exist by 1852, though their style lived
on.

In 1850, Rossetti painted his first subject from the works of Dante. Rossetti's
enthusiasm for Dante, Robert Browning's poetry, Arthurian romance, biblical
subjects, and archaic legends and medieval lore is also reflected in his imaginative
watercolors of the 1850s. Rossetti's interest in Arthurian subjects was fuelled
by
his mentorship of William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones, who joined him in
decorating the Oxford Union in 1857. As a member of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner
& Co., Rossetti executed designs for stained glass. While he did not favor
book illustration, his designs during this period also broadened his artistic
audience.

In 1859, Rossetti abandoned Pre-Raphaelite principles to paint Bocca baciata, a bust portrait of his mistress Fanny Cornforth, which
became a prototype for many of his popular later paintings featuring beautiful
women
in exotic surroundings under fanciful titles. After the suicide of his wife and
pupil Elizabeth Siddal in 1862, he lived in great style, with a menagerie of
animals, in Cheyne Walk. From 1868 until the mid-1870s, Rossetti conducted an
affair
with Jane Burden, the wife of William Morris, which, along with harsh criticism
of
his poetry, may have contributed to Rossetti's 1872 suicide attempt and subsequent
depression and paranoia. Jane Morris remained his principal muse until his death
in
1882.

The Dante Gabriel Rossetti Art Collection consists of pastel drawings, ink drawings,
and a plaster death mask of Rossetti by Brucciani. Some of the pieces are studies
for later works, including the drawings for the stained glass of St. George and
the
Dragon executed by William Morris. All of the works date to the late 1800s.

The Collection is divided into two series, Works by Rossetti and Works by Others.
The
works are listed by medium and chronologically by date. Titles are transcribed
from
the items; cataloger's titles appear in brackets.

The Ransom Center also has in its holdings a book of verse by Rossetti's sister,
Christina Rossetti (Verses. London: Privately
printed, 1847.) with original illustrations drawn into the book in pencil by her
brother.